My hifi is a disaster 1 problem at a time .

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Daniel Quinn
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Re: My hifi is a disaster 1 problem at a time .

Unread post by Daniel Quinn »

It was an AT 95E which was unfair against a £600 m.c, so i dont make two much of the comparision . Having said that , readinf the other fora , Gromit's system seems to one of the stars of scalfold this weekend and he had is Pioneer PL71 and a rega carbon cartridge [ £25 based on a AT95E ] and some very inexpensive bookshelf speakers whose name as escaped me as i type this , so you never know .

Daniel Quinn
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Re: My hifi is a disaster 1 problem at a time .

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Story so far - moved house = smaller room = discard beloved homemade speakers = hifi is a disaster and i hate the wharfedale 10.3 I bought to tide me over . They sounded muffled , compressed and shut in :evil:

I couldn’t listen to them and hoped my cabinet, cross over and hard wire mods would spring them in to life .

So last nite , I was listening to Mellanchamp’s Scarecrow album in particular [“between a laugh and tear “ , which ive adopted as a mantra for life ] and it wasn’t happening ,so after messing with the position again my thoughts turned to loudspeaker cable in the cupboard which I had bought months ago as it was a bargain [LS1] , for use when I eventually get round to buying some NVA amplification . : :D

I hadn’t used it before , because whilst I am a subjectivist , I am somewhat of a cable sceptic –copper is copper isn’t it ? However unlike the law were I’ve no need to be a sceptic because I know when and why Im right , my electronics knowledge is paltry so I retain an open mind and don’t dismiss out of hand . Well , I put in my system [ incorrectly bi-wired doc ] and it was a bloody revelation . It was immediately better because the soundstage and opened up and melanchamp’s voice was just more life like but as I listened all the usual inadequate descriptions [like lifting a veil , cleaner window , more musical, etc etc ] became relevant .

All of the things I understood can happen to sound of your system when modified , but which I thought were over exaggerated in the context of speaker cable .
I still remain incredulous and 50% of me is convinced its all in my head . But 2 hours later I was still listening and previously I had walked out the room after 10 minutes disappointed . It was just so much more believable and listenable . Back came the vocal inflection of billy joels innocent men , the phrasing , dynamic contrast of his voice all were like I remembered . On prefab sprouts bonny , the stop/start of the instruments which carries the song along was just better and so on and so on .

The sound wasn’t perfect , at volume the speakers find it difficult to control the bass on Peter Gabriel Secret World and Genesis “The lamia” , but for the first time it convinced me I could be happy listening to hifi in this room . It may not include the wharfedales in the long run , but it will include NVA speaker cable .

But I’m still incredulous and don’t have a bloody clue how it works and that is annoying and disconcerting .

[ for context rest of system – pt anni , Tabriz zi , benz micro ace s l , Yamaha as 1000 amp, comparison speaker cable was cable talk 3.1 and audioquest flx/slip ]

jammy395
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Re: My hifi is a disaster 1 problem at a time .

Unread post by jammy395 »

Aye Dan........I was pretty amazed at the diffrence adding NVA LS6 cable to my system made.........The improved Detail retreval aint subtle, It acctualy takes a wee bit of getting used to..... :clap: :clap: :clap:

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Re: My hifi is a disaster 1 problem at a time .

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Update , my incredulity and satisfaction with my hifi remains following the insertion of LS1 . On some records [ usually simple well recorded stuff ] it sounds sublime

soundstage is still not to my liking , but this is probably a combination of the room size and the speakers , However , it is now evident just what an improvement the maxon motor is over the origin live one . If anybody needs a dc motor you should check it out [ model no 226774] *

I am now reluctant to undertake the speaker mods in case or should that be when I mess it up , such as been the change, but who dares wins . :doh: :D




* you can buy this direct from thier website , prices are in swiss francs remember , but it is considerably cheaper than those firms who are selling maxon dc motors in disguise . :)
Last edited by Daniel Quinn on Fri Mar 15, 2013 3:27 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: My hifi is a disaster 1 problem at a time .

Unread post by Dr Bunsen Honeydew »

You wouldn't be where you are unless you experiment and try. You can get 40 years worth of experienced advice from me when ever you want it.

Just don't chop anything else off.

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Daniel Quinn
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Re: My hifi is a disaster 1 problem at a time .

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Ta doc and dont worry I'll only ask infrequent general questions and none were the answer is already available in the archive . :D

1st question - my last speakers had 4 drivers per box and I hard wired the woofers direct to the amp .The wharfedales have 2 . now i can hadwire the woofers direct to amp if i bi-wire [ incorrectly ] if I parrallell wire but if i series wire [ preference ] with no crossover on mid range , were do i stick the capacitor and resistor in the circuit for it to only act on the tweeter .

Ta

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Re: My hifi is a disaster 1 problem at a time .

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The capacitor and resistor both sit in series with the tweeter, so not across the terminals but in line with the pos wire. Desolder the pos wire from the tweeter solder the cap and res in series (one after the other) and then to pos on the tweeter, neg is just wired back to speaker terminal. If you are going to remove the crossover comps from the bass/mid then get a aerosol can of rubber coating spray and give both bass/mid drivers a good coating. Remove all wadding. You will find you will have to adjust the value of the padding res on the tweeter as the drive unit characteristics will have changed - try from 3ohms to 10ohms 5w wirewound. Finally get some 1/4 steel plate and line the inside of the cabinets.

You will have something as musical as a small Royd.

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Re: My hifi is a disaster 1 problem at a time .

Unread post by Dr Bunsen Honeydew »

Missed a bit, you can't series wire a tweeter with a woofer they have to be in parallel via the crossover. Series wiring only applies if you have two woofers or two tweeters.

Series cap to the tweeter I would use 3.3mfd.

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Re: My hifi is a disaster 1 problem at a time .

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:mrgreen:

Will try all of that . ta very much .

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Re: My hifi is a disaster 1 problem at a time .

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Well this weekend I tried phase 1 .
this involved -
[1] Cutting my LS1 in to four lenths of 2.5m each .[it was a 5m stereo pair ]
[2] removing the crossover, internal connectors and internal wiring .
[3] soldering the LS1 direct to the woofer in one continous piece from amp to speaker terminal .
[4] Soldering the negative direct LS1 direct to negative tweeter terminal
[5] soldering the cheap bi-polar capacitor and a wire wound resistor [removed from the crossover ] to the postivie terminal and then soldering the positive ls 1 to the capacitor . ie ls1 soldered to capacitor , capacitor soldered to resistor and resistor soldered to tweeter terminal.

Well , the results were excellant . Only played 1 record - bill bragg workers playtime side a & b .but everything was so much more real , immediate and musical and less coloured and naturally dynamic

Then it was time to watch football with the kids . the sound of the tv was coming through the speakers . just before 1/2 time the wife came in to complain about somebody banging , she didint believe it was the sound of the goal keeper kicking the post coming from the speakers , until he did it again .

So I am confused again . What am I missing , were are the problems I am not hearing , why does anybody fit a crossover at all?
Last edited by Daniel Quinn on Mon Mar 18, 2013 12:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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